


An Oath to a Goat

by Lurkete



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 03:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10549678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lurkete/pseuds/Lurkete
Summary: This fic was made way back when for 'Femslash10', I was asked to write a Willow/Kennedy fic.Finally moving my stuff from ye-old LiveJournal to here.Basically Willow and Kennedy get an adventure for their anniversary,nerding, chaos, shenanigans, and ancient Mesopotamian Goat-Goddesses ensue.





	

“Ahhh!” the high pitched shriek reverberated off the stone walls.

 

Kennedy’s hand went for the handle of the weapon strapped to her back just as her body tensed, she turned around ready for the danger that had caused her girlfriend to let lose the girly screech.  


“S-s-spider,” Willow mumbled apologetically while pointing at the arachnid dangling level with her slightly crossed-eyed gaze.  


Kennedy relaxed and rolled her eyes.  


“Can’t you fry it or something?” she asked the witch.  


“No!” Willow answered in a scandalized tone, “why would I do that to one of nature’s creatures?”  


“You mean one of nature’s critters, and then why did you scream?”  


“It just surprised me, s’all,” the redhead answered with a smile and stepped around the dangling bug. She reaching for her girlfriend’s unoccupied hand - the other one was still clutching the hilt of the Kopesh at the Slayer’s back.  


Kennedy smiled back and begrudgingly let go of her weapon. Willow - at this point well attuned to her sweetie’s idiosyncrasies - just patted the brunettes arm and bumped their shoulders.  


“Don’t worry Fitz; you’ll get your chance to use that monster of a sword. This place definitely rates high on the 2Q2SQ scale.”  


“The what?”  


“The too-quiet-to-stay-quiet scale.”  


Kennedy just grumbled and kept her eyes open for other opportunities as they trekked deeper into the sunken temple.  
Willow sighed good-naturally and followed while musing about the circumstance that brought her and her honey to an ancient sunken temple dedicated to the middle-eastern goddess Mamitu as a vacation spot to celebrate their 2-year anniversary.  
  
  
It had actually taken them a surprisingly long time to decide on the location; Kennedy tended more towards the adventure-type excursions while Willow wanted to see museums and galleries and drink good coffee at quaint little café shops.

 

The solution came from Andrew who insisted that they should consult the experimental magical search-engine that he and his more geeky padwans were working on. He called it Voodle and it “represented the glory of The Slayer Spirit in that it infused the insuppressible need to boldly go into the unknown future while still maintaining the beauty and traditions of ye old ways.” At that point of Andrew’s explanation some random shenanigan had happened outside the castle that required the attention of both her and Kennedy so they hastily entered their preferences and parameters into the ‘Advance Search’ section of the GUI and let the magical engine do its… magic.  


Thus, when they came back into the main computer lab - covered in slimy purple goo and the occasional served tentacle - the single answer that awaited them on the Voodle-map page was a little red pin marking a location near Tel El-Mukayyar in the south-eastern part of Iraq.  


In retrospect, choosing a vacation spot according to anything that has to do with Andrew - let alone an experimental magical program - might not have been the smartest move, but at the time she hadn’t the heart to shatter the hopeful looks on his and his host of geeky apprentices’ faces.  
Iraq it was, plus – Middle Eastern coffee was supposed to be amazing, no?  


Getting there was not much of a problem, what with Willow’s apparition skills. Finding a legitimate excuse to be there (at least in the eyes of any authority they might encounter) was a bit trickier, but they eventually settled on a forged agent-card from some random American mercenary company for Kennedy and an Archeological-Research Visa for Willow, which really, wasn’t that far off from the truth. But the best disguises had a hefty grain of truth sprinkled all over them; at least that’s what Andrew informed them as he gave them their falsified documentations.  


Iraq turned out to be hot. Like, opening the oven and feeling the hot-air hot, cooking a steak on the sidewalk hot, sweating while you showered hot. Very, very hot.  


Willow sneaked a narrow eyed peak at her bronze-skinned lover. Sure, the brunette complained about the temperature, but Willow suspected it was more out of Kennedy’s love of being difficult rather than any sort of genuine discomfort. She on the other hand, was close to breaking the laws of nature by being the first human being to naturally melt into a puddle of misery. She probably still looks the part, what with all the sweat and sun-screen that have taken permanent residency on her person.  


At least their current location shelters them from both sun and heat. She looks around at the shadowy cave, half of it natural rock, half of it chiseled blocks of stones and pillars.  


Earlier that day, after settling in a creepy little hotel in the outskirts of the city of An Nasiriyah, they bought a dingy little car and started driving into - what was essentially - an empty desert; their only guide was Andrew’s Voodle GPS application that he installed into Willow’s Android phone before they left.  
  
  
“Why do you think our Voodle search brought us here?” Willow suddenly asks as they pass by a giant fallen column that looks like it was sculpted to look like some sort of goat.  


“Because he’s a little freak that’s going to die the next time I see him,” Kennedy grumps back.  


“Aww don’t be like that. Admit it, you’re having fun,” Willow smiles as she berates the other woman, she starts swings their still joined hands.  


“Yes because falling into an underground ancient temple that’s probably crawling with things-that-should-be-dead-but-are-not-quite, traps, spiders, and who knows what else, is simply the definition of fun,” Kennedy exclaims.  


Willow’s grin widens as she keeps staring at Kennedy with a mischievously knowing look.  


“Fine, the sword is cool,” Kennedy relents after a while.  


“See, silver lining, and we’re together and still alive and, ooh, look at this-“, she skips over to a pillar, “Runes, I like runes. So there’s something for me too.”  


Kennedy smiles and shakes her head as she walks over to the redhead that is already gently tracing the carvings with her fingers; her face is so close to the stone that she starts sneezing from the dust she’s inhaling.  


“Slow down Wills, what does it say?”  


“It’s a story, I think, about two lovers: Vashzerezeth and Unkiham. And some sort of agreement… no, a promise that they made to each other. I can’t read the rest because the pillar is so damaged but I’ve seen parts of the story - or maybe stories similar to this one - all over the temple.”  


“Stories about two lovers?”  


“No, stories about vows. Mamitu is the goddess of oaths and irreversible curses; it makes sense that her temple will be filled with stories about such things.”  


“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, back up sparky, irreversible curses? Wills, I’m not liking this one bit.”  


“Don’t worry Fitz, she’s not considered a bad goddess or even a major one, she just rules over a domain that has very serious consequences.”  


Kennedy takes an audibly deep breath that she hopes conveys her displeasure. But Willow just straightens up from the pillar with a last brush to the markings and attaches herself again to the brunette’s hand.  


“Lead on McDuff.”  


“Hmm, you know that that’s what Macbeth kind-of-said before McDuff killed him,” the Slayer complains.  


“You have a cool sword. Concentrate on the sword,” Willow answers and kisses her cheek.  


Kennedy sighs again and they continue on their path.  
  


The sword is cool, willow muses. Once they reached the middle-of-nowhere location marked on her Android phone, she and Kennedy got out of the car and exchanged unimpressed looks. Just as Kennedy was about to open her mouth to say something – probably complain, the ground made a weird cracking noise and they fell into the pit that formed underneath them.  


She reckons that the combined weight of them plus the vehicle was just too much for what turned out to be the roof of an ancient cave.  


After dusting off and looking around, they found themselves in a large cavern surrounded by some 30 odd skeletons of what appeared to be ancient Sumerian soldiers, at least judging by the armor and weapons.  
Naturally (at least for people in their profession) the dead soldiers sprang to life and started attacking them. They were surprisingly good considering the archaic weaponry they had at their disposal, not to mention how old the spell that was animating them had to be.  


Those Sumerians knew their stuff, Willow thinks, such magic must be incredibly binding if it did not decay over such a long period of time.  


Luckily she and her partner were not your run-of-the-mill grave robbers, but rather a powerful witch and a senior Slayer.  
It took a bit, but they managed to eventually dispose of all of their attackers. Kennedy got the sword off of what had to be the Captain of the platoon.  


It was a fine weapon, heavy and wickedly curved in the style of all Khopesh swords, giving it an almost axe-like look. The craftsmanship was superb; the entire thing was made out of a single hunk of metal - a weird black alloy with delicate silvery veins running through the entirety of it. The grip and pommel were simply decorated with gold trimmings while the fuller had an icon of a 6-winged snake-like beast imprinted into it. For such a heavy and old weapon it was perfectly balanced.  


Needless to say, Kennedy fell in love with it immediately and claimed it as hers the minute she could pray it out of the deader Captain’s hands.

  
  
“Heads up, we’re getting closer to… something,” Kennedy warns her.  


And sure enough the largish corridor they’ve been walking through ends at a ledge looking out to an enormous cavern. There are cracks in the cave’s ceiling that let eerie shafts of sunlight in; the shimmering beams are slicing the vista in various diagonal angles, enhancing the lines of a massive pyramid-like structure in the middle of the cave as if the entire scene was a picture constructed by an artist with a strong sense of composition. At the top of the pyramid is a giant statue of a goat with wings.  


They carefully find their way down from the ledge to the floor of the cavern.  


“What I don’t understand is why the Sumerians associated oaths with goats,” Kennedy mumbles as they make their way up the many steps to the top of the pyramid.  


“Maybe all the other animals were already taken,” Willow hazards with a cheeky smile.  


Kennedy looks at her peevishly, “I never know if you’re joking about such things,” she tells her girlfriend as they reach the top.  


I WAS DEALING WITH OTHER THINGS WHEN THEY WERE GIVING OUT ANIMAL AVATARS, they hear. Impossibly, the voice is both booming and a whisper, both male and female, both awe-inspiring and… petulant.

IT WASN’T MY FAULT, OKAY? …EVERYONE’S A CRITIC.  


Both Willow and Kennedy’s eyebrows reach their hairline.  


“Sorry, we didn’t mean to offend,” Willow apologizes hastily.  


“Yeah and… where are you anyways?” Kennedy says while peering around.  


RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, OATH BARER.  


“Uhhh,” Willow looks up and starts elbowing the brunette even as she slowly lifts her finger to point at the large goat statue.  


“What is it Wills?” Kennedy asks while still looking around.  


“Fitz, I have a feeling, a growing feeling, that that ain’t no moon.”  


Kennedy looks up at the statue, who is patiently staring right back at them.  


“Thank you Obi-Wan.” She murmurs to Willow.  


“Sure.”  


YOU TWO MAY HAVE BEEN SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME WITH YOUR YOUNG WARLOCK FRIEND.  


“Andrew? Huh, ain’t that the truth,” Kennedy muses.  


“Nah, I am Nerd-au-naturel,” Willow shrugs.  


“So speaking of Andrew,” Kennedy turns to the large goat-thing in front of them, “Why are we here?”  


TO COMPLETE AN OATH THAT WAS MADE MANY, MANY YEAR-CYCLES AGO.  


“You mean the sword don’t you? You called me Oath barer… I’m going to have to give back the sword, won’t I?” Kennedy laments.  


Willow rubs her back comfortingly.  
  
  
IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE. YOU SEE, THERE’S THIS WHOLE BUSINESS OF DEFEATING THE SERPENT, AND TAKING UP A NEW OATH IN PLACE OF THE OLD ONE...

  
If a giant stone goat with six wings could shuffle its mighty feat, then Mamitu was doing a fine job at imitating it.  


“How about you start at the beginning,” Willow suggests to the Goddess.

FINE.  
MANY YEAR-CYCLES AGO TWO LOVERS WHERE RIPPED APART BY AN EVIL SORCERER.  


“You mean Vashzerezeth and Unkiham don’t you?” asks Willow  


YES. PLEASE DON’T INTERRUPT.  


Kennedy gives her girlfriend an admonishing look.  


Willow just shrugs her shoulders defensibly and mouths “What?” at her brunette.  


ANYWAYS, THE EVIL SORCERER WANTED VASHZEREZETH FOR HIMSELF AND WHEN SHE REFUSED HIM ONE-TO-MANY-TIMES HE TURNED HER INTO A MIGHTY AND DANGEROUS SERPENT, THINKING THAT IF HE COULD NOT HAVE HER - NO ONE COULD.  


“Ass,” Kennedy murmurs.  


TOTALLY.  
ANYWAYS, LUCKILY THIS DID NOT DETER UNKIHAM LOVE FOR VASHZEREZETH. AND HE VOWED THAT HE WOULD FIND A WAY TO FREE HIS LOVE FROM HER REPTILIAN FORM.  
IN HIS VOW HE INVOKED MY NAME, AND HIS PROMISE WAS SO PROFOUND AND EARNEST THAT I AGREED TO HELP HIM AND BIND HIS SOUL TO A BLADE. A BLADE THAT COULD FREE VASHZEREZETH.  


“You mean my blade,” Kennedy states more than asks.  


YES.  


Kennedy blinks.  
“Eww, I’ve been carrying an old dude on my back.”  


TRUE, BUT NOW YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO COMPLETE HIS TASK. UNKIHAM DIED TRYING TO GET TO THE INNER SANCTUARY OF THIS TEMPLE. THE EVIL-WIZARD’S TRAPS GOT TO HIM AND HIS MEN BEFORE THEY COULD GET INTO THE TEMPLE-PROPER.  


“What traps?”  


“Uhh, I’ve been Kind’a disabling them as we go,” Willow pips up shyly.  


“That’s my Wills,” Kennedy says proudly and kisses her brow.  


Willow blushes happily. Mamitu grins at the two.

 

YOU MUST SLAY VASHZEREZETH THE SERPENT WITH UNKIHAM THE SWORD, ONLY THEN MAY THE SORCERER’S SPELL BE LIFTED.  


“Sounds simple enough,” Kennedy says.  


Just as she finishes the sentence the pyramid underneath them starts to shake. Willow looks at her in horror.  


“Oh Shit, what a novice mistake,” the brunette berates herself as the roof on which they’ve been standing on rips open and a humongous six-winged serpent bursts out with a roar.  


“Slayage now, serious talk about tempting the PTB’s with sentences like ‘Sounds simple enough’ later,” Willow shouts at her lover over the cacophony.  


Kennedy unsheathes her blade and starts running at the beast. She barely has time to get away, let alone swipe at the beast with her blade, before it shrugs towards her in a lightning-fast chomp.  
Serpent indeed. Despite its size, this thing moves with the speed of a snake.  


“Willow, forget the wings!” The brunette shouts at her lover, who has taken to the air and has been busily shooting magical nets at the creatures back in an attempt at binding its wings.  


“It’s hell’a fast! It’s going to eat me before you get the chance to finish those! plus we’re in a cave – it’s not going to get too far by flying.”  


Willow gives her a thumbs-up; all around the redhead weird bluish runes appear shimmering in the air. But before Kennedy has a chance to see what her honey is up to, the beast strikes at her again.  
She barely avoids the spear-sized fangs by leaping closer to its body, ending the maneuver with a duck and roll.  


The Serpent hisses at her angrily.  


“Okay, ugly. Let’s see if I can’t make you go all Möbius and bite your own tail,” she says as she runs and leaps onto the snake’s back.  
The plan backfires is the giant beast simply flickers its tail and Kennedy finds herself hurtling through the air.  


“Ooof!” she grunts as she collides with something both soft and bony.  


“Hello.”  


“Hey. Thanks.” Kennedy smiles and plants a quick kiss on the floating redhead who is cradling her in her arms damsel-in-distress style after catching the brunette in mid-air.  


“Well, you know, I’m just here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way,” the witch grins.  


“Ugh, too much Wills.”  


“What? The 1978 one was the beast one, and look, I’m flying.”  


“You sure are, but we still have ‘freaky’ here to dispatch. I need you to slow her down; she’s too fast for me to handle on my own”.  


“No problemo, mi bad-ass Slayer-o,” the Witch says and lets her go.  


Kennedy drops straight down, calculating that her trajectory will end her on top of the snake’s head. As she falls she feels a cool gust of wind wiz by her ear and sees one on Willows spells hit the Serpent straight in the eye. The beast shakes its head but the movement is happening as if it’s in slow-motion.  


“That’s my girl,” Kennedy whispers to herself as she crashes onto Vashzerezeth’s neck with a mighty swipe of her sword, which cleanly severs the beast’s head from the rest of its body.  


  
“Surprisingly clean kill,” Kennedy informs Willow after the witch lands next to her on the broken roof.  


“Look, no goo.”  


“Yup, truly a magical beast this is,” The redhead agrees.  


WELL DONE.  


They look up to see Mamitu with two ghostly apparitions standing beside her. The ghosts are hugging and smiling and waving at them.  
Willow waves back.  


“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Kennedy says with a clap to her thigh.  


NOT SO FAST. I STILL NEED A NEW OATH TO REPLACE THE OLD ONE.  


“What?! that’s not fare.”  


YOU GET TO KEEP THE SWORD.  


“…”  


Willow grins and turns to cup the brunette’s cheek.  


“Kennedy, I love you sweetie. These last two years have been terrible and frightening and difficult and there’s no respite in the horizon. But through it all you’ve been there. Like a rock. Like a Light-tower. You have no idea how much I need you, how much you’ve helped, how much I appreciate you. I am So grateful for you my love. And I promise to say these words to you again, with the same earnestly, next year on the same date.”  


She ends with a smile and a sweet kiss.  


Kennedy grins. And cups Willow’s cheeks with both her hands.  


“Willow, my wily witch. I love you, you make me grow, you calm me down; you give me purpose. Before you I was just a brat, before you I didn’t care – about anything really, not about the world, not about other people, and when you get right down to it - not about myself. You have no idea how much I need you, how much you’ve helped, how much I appreciate you. I am So grateful for you, my love. I too promise to say these words to you, with the same earnestly, next year on this same date.”  


She too ends her sentence with an adoring smile and a gentle kiss.  


GRAND.  
They hear as the world fades to black.  


  
When it comes back, they are in their room in Scotland in Slayer-Central. Only the room has been cleaned as well as filled with thousands of soft smelling rose petals and hundreds of merrily lit candles.  


“Subtle,” Kennedy smirks.  


But Willow is already removing the Khopesh from her back…

 

* * *  


HOW DID I DO?  


“You where great Mamitu, thank you so much for helping us. You too guys,” he says to the two lovers sitting across from him at the rounded table.  


“It was our pleasure Andrew, but it wouldn’t have been such a success without your shrewd planning,” Vashzerezeth tells him with a gentle smile.  


“Of course! Andrew is a great Dungeon-Master,” one of Andrew’s apprentice-Slayers says proudly.  


A murmur of agreements sounds from around the shadowed maps and figurine filled table.  


“Aww, thank you Bethany,” Andrew says, his skinny chest puffing out a little while his hands fiddle with the ties to his red DM cape.  


“Then why do you look so anxious friend-Andrew?” Unkiham asks him with concern.  


“Ah, ha, ha, ha yeah…” he laughs nervously, “I’m just imagining what Willow and Kennedy will do to me if they ever find out that I got them to LARP for their anniversary…”

 

-Fin-


End file.
